Mr. Bean's Holiday

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Mr. Bean's Holiday (also known as Bean 2, Bean on Holiday and French Bean) is a British-French 2007 comedy film starring Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean which was released in the United Kingdom and Australia on 30 March 2007 and on 24 August 2007 in the United States and Canada.

It's the second film based on the television series Mr. Bean, a sequel to 1997's Bean. Rowan Atkinson said that this is probably the last appearance of the popular character.

Contents

Release

News of the second film first broke in early 2005, suggesting that it would be written by Simon McBurney, although in December 2005, Atkinson stated that the screenplay was being written by himself and long-time collaborator Richard Curtis.

The screenplay was finally confirmed to have been written by Robin Driscoll, Simon McBurney and Hamish McColl. Atkinson also said that Mr. Bean's Holiday will most likely be the last [Mr. Bean]] story he appears in. He was also quoted as saying "Never say never" but went on to add that it was highly unlikely he would appear as Mr. Bean again.[4]
Unlike the 1997 Mel Smith film, Mr Bean's Holiday was directed by Steve Bendelack. The film began shooting on 15 May 2006.

It was the official film for Red Nose Day 2007, with money from the film going towards the charity Comic Relief. Prior to the film's release, a new and exclusive Mr. Bean sketch was broadcast on the Comic Relief telethon on BBC One on 16 March 2007. The movie's official premiere took place at Leicester Square's Odeon in London on Sunday, 25 March, and helped to raise money for both Comic Relief and the Oxford Children's Hospital Appeal charity.

Universal Pictures released a teaser trailer in November 2006, and in December 2006 launched an official website online.

Plot

The film opens with Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) attending a raffle in June. His number is 919, the winning number. But Bean misreads it upside-down as 616. Frustrated that he "lost", he throws the ticket onto a toy train. Seeing the ticket upside down reading 919, he grabs the ticket and yells out that he won in his mumbling deep voice. The prize is a holiday involving a train journey to Cannes, a Sony video camera,and €200.

Following a misunderstanding involving a taxi at the Gare du Nord railway station in Paris, Bean is forced to make his way unorthodoxly towards the Gare de Lyon to board his next train towards Cannes. As he misses the train whilst getting his tie stuck in a vending machine and the next one won't leave for another hour, he has time to sample French seafood at Le Train Bleu restaurant. Unable to communicate in French, he accidentally orders oysters and langoustine, which he cannot bring himself to eat. His disgust for oysters may be explained from the Mr. Bean in Room 426 episode. He surreptitiously pours the oysters into a nearby lady's handbag, and eats the whole langoustine without taking off the shell in front of everybody.

Back on the platform, Bean asks a man, who happens to be a Cannes Film Festival jury member and Russian movie critic Emil Dachevsky (Karel Roden), to use his camcorder to film his walking onto the train. By the time they are done, the TGV is about to leave. Although Bean manages to get onto the train, the doors close before Dachevsky can get on. Dachevsky's son, Stepan (Max Baldry) is therefore left on board by himself.

Bean attempts to befriend Stepan, with the result that when the boy slaps him in the face and when he gets off at the next station, Bean gets off too and accidentally misses the train, along with his bag aboard. The train that Stepan's father has boarded does not stop at the station, and he holds up a mobile number, but with the last two digits obscured. Their efforts at calling the number prove fruitless even though at one point they do get through to Stepan's house, but the phone is answered by the maid, whose voice Stepan does not recognize. They board the next train, but since Bean has left his ticket and passport on the station public telephone, the duo are soon thrown out of the train.

Attempts at busking by miming to Puccini's O mio babbino caro (sung by Rita Streich) and other music prove successful, and Bean buys them a bus ticket to Cannes. Bean loses his ticket by getting the ticket stuck on a chicken's foot. Mr. Bean then steals a nearby bicycle and follows the chicken which has been placed onto a Peugeot 504 pickup and ends up at a chicken pen. On his return, he finds that the bicycle has been run over by a tank, but the camera is still intact. After attempting to steal a motorcycle and almost getting killed by a lorry, Bean stumbles on to the set for a TV advertisement, which he accidentally blows up, injuring the director Carson Clay (Willem Dafoe).

Bean then tries to hitch-hike again; a yellow Mini picks him up, much like the one he owns in the series, driven by actress Sabine (Emma de Caunes) who Bean encountered both at the commercial filming and previously, who offers him a lift to Cannes. She is on her way to the 59th Cannes Film Festival where Carson Clay's film in which she makes her debut is going to be presented. When they stop at a service station, Bean finds Stepan in a café. He joins them. Bean and Stepan now attempt, again in vain, to call Dachevsky with Sabine's phone. When Sabine falls deeply asleep, Bean then drives the car himself, but he keeps falling asleep. After doing dangerous and painful things to himself to stay awake, Bean and the other two finally make it to Cannes.

When Sabine goes into a petrol station to change for the premiere, she sees a newsflash which the police have made up a story about Mr. Bean kidnapping Stepan and Sabine being his accomplice. However, since she does not want to miss the premiere, she is reluctant to go to the police to clear up the "misunderstanding". They therefore plan to get into Cannes without being identified. Stepan dresses up as Sabine's daughter, while Mr. Bean dresses up as Sabine's mother, who is allegedly Spanish and deaf. They manage to get through the search and Sabine arrives at the premiere on time.

After sneaking into the premiere, Bean is disappointed to see that Sabine's role has been (rather poorly) cut from the film (Carson Clay is seen nodding at the woman beside him at this point, implying that he cut the scene as a favour to his jealous wife), and ends up plugging in his video camera to the projector, where his video diary is unexpectedly played out. However, the strange tale it tells fits director Clay's narration well, so that the director, Sabine, and Bean all receive standing ovations. Stepan is finally reunited with his father.
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fter the screening, Bean leaves the building and goes to the beach, encountering there many of the other characters. The film then ends with Bean and all the other characters of the film miming a large French musical finale, singing the famous song by Charles Trenet, "La Mer" (Beyond the Sea).

Rating

In the UK, it was classified by the British Board of Film Classification as PG for containing "irresponsible behaviour."

This film was originally given a PG rating by the Motion Picture Association of America for brief mild language, but Universal cut out most of the language (leaving Stepan saying "damn" in Russian in one shot and the same word in French in a later shot) so the film would be rated G by the MPAA. It was one of the few Universal theatrically released films to be rated G. The first film, by contrast, was rated PG-13. It is much cleaner in content than the original film.

DVD and HD DVD release

Mr. Bean's Holiday was released on DVD and HD DVD on 27 November 2007. The DVD version is in separate widescreen and pan and scan for the US markets formats. The DVD charted at #1 on the UK DVD Chart on its week of release.